If you aren’t excited about manufacturing today, you might need to visit Mississippi. There you’ll find the PACCAR Engine Company (PEC) plant, where process improvement has been a constant since its launch in June 2010.
There are major technology disruptions afoot in the world of conventional portable metrology. For the better part a decade, 6DoF laser tracking has been the standard go-to technology for metrologists in the large-scale manufacturing sectors.
When you are setting up a machine vision system, your choice of camera will depend on the objects that you want to inspect, the necessary speed, lighting and temperature, and available space. And not to forget—the system costs.
3D imaging means different things to different people. While 3D imaging has been around in some form for decades, technological advances have brought it to new applications, thanks in part to improvements in image sensors, standardization of interface technologies and increased demand for new solutions for more complex imaging needs.
Applications of machine vision technology are expanding at a rapid rate because of its ability to deliver substantial improvements in quality such as providing 100% inline inspection while addressing concerns over the attention span and fatigue level of human operators.
3D imaging brings more detailed analysis and insight to manufacturing and quality inspection processes where depth information can help verify proper assembly and detect surface defects.
There was a time when choosing a gaging solution for shaft-type parts was a relatively straightforward task. High-volume parts received a custom-built gage and everything else received a manual or automatic “snap-on” or ring gage of some sort.
The term reverse engineering can be applied to a wide range of technologies, including disassembling computer code, genetic modification, and many more. For engineering applications, it is more usually thought of as the conversion of physical parts into digital models.
What started as a project to investigate the accuracy and reproducibility of reverse engineering a product using computed tomography (CT) and additive manufacturing with 3D printing technology has helped to establish some guidelines and processes for the future of high-quality “3D copying.”
Laser tracker technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. But experts say the biggest shift has actually been in thinking and how they are used.
A reader emailed me after reading some of my rants on thread ring gages dealing with the problems that come up in their use and calibration. But he added another dimension to the problem since he is in the calibration business: How do the Europeans deal with their solid thread ring gages?
According to the ASQ Quality Glossary, voice of the customer (VOC) is defined as, “The expressed requirements and expectations of customers relative to products or services, as documented and disseminated to the providing organization’s members.”
It’s safe to say that all quality practitioners are familiar with the control charting terms “common cause” and “special cause” variation. However, how many have really thought about their interpretations and associated action plans which could also add to variation?
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence launched PC-DMIS 2017 R1, the latest edition of the measurement software. ‘R1’ is short for ‘Release 1’ as there are two major releases scheduled for PC-DMIS in 2017, with continued service pack updates to ensure maximum reliability of the platform.
Basler AG from Ahrensburg is supplementing its PowerPacks for Microscopy with additional Microscopy ace camera models including the latest CMOS sensor technology. The PowerPacks offer high-quality cameras together with components for a simple system setup and installation.
Renishaw’s new XM-60 multi-axis calibrator is capable of measuring all six degrees of freedom from a single set-up, in any orientation for linear axes. The XM-60 offers significant improvement in simplicity and time saving over conventional laser measurement techniques.
4D Technology announced the 4D InSpec™ Surface Gauge, the first handheld, non-contact instrument that measures precision machined surface defects and features with micrometer-level resolution.